As the leaves and weather begin to change on campus, the spirit of Thanksgiving fills the air. Students who have been working hard throughout the semester look forward to a home cooked meal and the company of family and friends around the dinner table.
Pierce College gives students two school days off, Thanksgiving Day, Thursday Nov. 26 and the following day, Friday, Nov. 27 before the weekend. This four-day break is a wonderful time to celebrate and give thanks, that is if you are actually able to make it home in time for the holiday festivities.
According to TravelChannel.com, Thanksgiving is “undoubtedly the busiest travel time of the year with notorious transportation delays, traffic and travel snags.” With that in mind, Pierce students should be given the day before Thanksgiving off to travel.
Pierce is a commuter school that supports students who come from far distances as well as a large international and out of state population. Having the day before Thanksgiving off would give them much needed travel time to ensure they make it home in time for the break.
Students wouldn’t be the only ones to benefit from an extra day off. Pierce College faculty and staff would also appreciate an additional day to celebrate with their loved ones.
There is heavy traffic expected around Thanksgiving, especially in Los Angeles, which ranks as number three on TripAdvisor’s list of the top U.S. cities Americans will be traveling to for the holiday. In addition, according to TripAdvisor’s annual Thanksgiving travel survey of more than 2,800 U.S. respondents, “40% of travelers plan to travel for the Thanksgiving holiday, up 5% from last year.”
Plenty of students already skip class the day before Thanksgiving. Anticipating low attendance, many teachers will either cancel class or save important lecture material for after the break.
Hung Wong, a professor of engineering at the University of Southern California, told the Daily Trojan that he estimates, at most, 50 percent of his students will attend class on Wednesday.
“I don’t want to be lazy and not hold class … But attendance will not be required — it won’t be on any quizzes or homework assignments, so if they don’t show up, it’s as if it never happened,” Wong said.
If some students already plan to take the day off and teachers aren’t expecting a good turnout anyway, it would benefit all to be given the day before Thanksgiving off.
In 2009, the USC Undergraduate Student Government conducted a poll revealing that 93.2 percent of students want the Wednesday before Thanksgiving off. The Undergraduate Student Government Director of Academic Affairs who was in charge of the poll, Andrew Matson, agreed that the University should re-evaluate its calendar. USC has since changed its calendar to include Wednesday off, much to the delight of its staff and student body.
The Pierce College population would surely give thanks too if it was gifted an extra day off to travel before the turkey day celebration.
